Sensex sheds 48 points in opening trade

Mumbai, (Agencies): The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by nearly 48 points in opening trade on Thursday on continued selling by foreign funds and retail investors amid concerns over high interest rates and weak cues from other Asian markets.

The 30-share barometer, which lost over 444 points in the previous two sessions, fell further by 47.73 points to 17,545.04 points in the first few minutes of trade on Thursday.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty, however, was trading 3 points higher at 5,256.55 points.

Brokers said continued offloading of stocks by funds and retail investors amid persisting concerns over high interest rates, the widening probe in the 2G spectrum scam and weak Asian trends, mainly dampened the trading sentiment at home.

Bucking the trend, shares of Anil Ambani group companies, which had suffered a sharp setback in yesterday's trade, staged a strong comeback, helping the Nifty trade in the positive zone.

Reliance Infra was trading 8.5 per cent higher, while Reliance Power gained 4 per cent and Reliance Communications recovered by 4.1 per cent in opening trade on Thursday.